Investigation into Harveston power outage ongoing

TEMECULA  Temecula Mayor Mike Naggar has scheduled a meeting next week with a Southern California Edison official to discuss the recent power outage in the Harveston community that fried electronic devices and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage.

The March 8 outage, which hit more than 400 customers in the northern Temecula community, caused a brief power interruption.

Affected Harveston residents said the power surge that resulted when electricity came back on ended up blowing out TVs, computers, microwaves, cable boxes, a house alarm pad and more. Fire department officials who canvassed the neighborhood after the outage found more than 100 homes that had suffered some sort of damage.

Naggar said the outage is at the top of the agenda for the meeting and he wants to hear that Edison has identified what the cause was and that the utility will compensate customers for their losses.

"They just need to step up and fix it," he said.

The utility has an online form that allows customers affected by such events to file claims, but there are a couple of caveats.

"Our goal is to reach a decision on most claims within 30 days of receipt," according to the SCE website. "The process may take longer when complex issues are involved, when further information is needed, or when extenuating circumstances are present. Once our investigation is complete, we will contact you with our conclusion."

Edison spokesman Jeremy Goldman said in a statement Monday that the investigation is ongoing and there was no timeline for when it may be complete.

On the night of the outage, a different spokesperson, Lois Pitter-Bruce, said there was an issue with three of the circuits in the area, but provided no additional information.

According to a CalFire news release updated at 5:45 p.m. on March 8, there was a power surge in the area that set off smoke alarms and tripped electrical breakers.

In the event SCE accepts responsibility for a property damage claim, it will reimburse the claimant for "either the repair cost, actual cash value, or the replacement cost -- whichever is lowest."

SCE has told city officials that they may never know the true reason behind the power surge, but it's possible it was the result of a lower-voltage line colliding with a higher-voltage line. In addition, SCE has told city officials that it is continuing to pay off claims related to the incident.